Naruto was confused about why a book on metallurgy would be taking about stones named after blood until he read further and saw it meant stones made of blood, blood that had crystallized from creatures with a lot of iron in their blood.
The blonde boy quickly realized that was not normal, and the author seemed to realize this as the book continued to state it was only known to happen in the ruined depths of the old civilization.
That there was no name given for that place, or the civilization, wasn't even surprising to Naruto anymore, he took it in stride and continued reading to find out how to extract blood stone from creatures he killed if they would have any. The information was grisly and detailed, but he read through it to find out why the book on metallurgy thought it was so important.
Blood stones could be used to make iron weaponry harder and sharper, that was fairly useful Naruto had to admit. They could also be used to carve imprints for blood gems, whatever those were. The boy kept reading to see if those were listed, he had to skim past some techniques for applying different sized blood stones to different kinds of weapons before he found another mention of the gems though.
Blood gems were like an advanced form of blood stone that could be slotted into a weapon imprinted for it to grant it a number of effects, including increased sharpness, hardness, make it heavier, make it lighter somehow, channel electricity through it, or set the blade on fire.
"Must have something to do with chakra." Naruto muttered, doubting his own words even as he said them. He looked at his weapon again and frowned when he noticed it already had imprints, but they weren't carved out.
The boy checked his book again, there were four different shapes for imprints and weapon smiths were encouraged to get the outline ready during the crafting process so the weapon could be more swiftly finished later.
Naruto sighed and checked the outlines of the imprints in his blade, radial, waning, and triangle. One of each except for round, he wondered if he could add more later and checked the book again. More than three imprints ruined the structural integrity of the iron, destroying the weapon regardless of how much crystallized old blood is strengthening it.
"So, blood stones, carve out the imprints, blood gems." Naruto listed off the things he needed to find and do next time he got the chance to go exploring, he put the book down, he hadn't even gotten to touch the one on engineering.
Naruto was glad he didn't pick up the engineering book, he was already late to orientation. Iruka gave him a stern look, "Naruto-kun, glad you could join us." he said.
"I, uh, slept in." Naruto excused lamely as he took a seat, ignoring the whispers of the other students.
The chunin shook his head and sighed before he continued his speech about responsibility and discipline, he added some words about promptness that Naruto was pretty sure had not been in the first draft but wasn't going to point that out.
Finally Iruka began to announce the cells, each team tended to have two male shinobi and a kunoichi as well as the jonin commander. Mostly due to the fact that more guys were interested in being ninja, the few girls that were there mostly seemed more interested in one of the boys, Sasuke Uchiha.
Naruto glanced at him, the dark haired boy was rich and a brooding orphan, so the blonde supposed it was typical the girls were interested in him. Darkly Naruto realized that technically made them gold diggers, but he wasn't stupid enough to voice that thought.
Naruto was pulled from his thoughts by his name, "...cell seven will consist of Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno," the pink haired girl slumped, "and Sasuke Uchiha." the young kunoichi immediately cheered as a few other kunoichi genin glared at her.
Iruka continued but Naruto was distracted again, normally he'd be happy to have Sakura on his team, but he was going through some stuff and was pretty sure there was no way dating was on the table as he currently was.
After orientation was done and Iruka congratulated them all yet again he let them go to lunch with instructions to return and meet their jonin sensei, however as soon as the chunin was gone more of the class seemed interested in Naruto.
"Where did you get that thing?"
"What kind of weapon is that?"
"I thought you failed."
"I heard he died."
"Performing a bunshin?"
"No from some other thing."
"Did you kill someone to graduate?"
The last question had Naruto's head spinning and he shook his head, "I just did some extra credit and I made this weapon." he excused, the lie coming more easily the more he leaned into it.
"You made it?" Sasuke sounded incredulous.
"Yeah, funny how we aren't ever graded on crafting weapons." Naruto retorted sarcastically, excusing his terrible grades in a way.
"That's because most shinobi don't craft their own weapons." Ino pointed out, the male blonde wondered why the girl was bringing that up when her family owned a flower shop and worked with the torture and interrogation department.
"Puppeteers do." Sakura pointed out, anything to one up her rival Ino.
"So, was making the weapon the extra credit?" Kiba asked, he was still pretty sure the blonde boy had killed someone to graduate, Akamaru smelled human blood this time and normally that constituted a being locked up not awarded with a hitai-ate and a pat on the back.
"No." Naruto answered honestly, sprinkling in the truth sometimes would make the white lies more believable. Seeing as they weren't going to leave him alone the blonde decided to just leave himself, rushing off to avoid further questions was probably suspicious but he needed to get out there.
The blonde sighed to himself once he was alone, hiding his new secrets was going to be hard. At least the adults would excuse it as Kyuubi weirdness, maybe he could pull that card and tell his team about the kitsune if they noticed something that wouldn't be otherwise able to be explained.
Naruto decided to get ramen at Ichiraku for lunch, he hadn't even noticed he skipped breakfast. His steps faltered as he realized he had not eaten last night either, he'd spent the evening learning how to better hunt and collecting blood to strengthen his fine motor skills, then he'd spent the rest of the night until morning reading.
When was the last time Naruto actually ate? Yesterday morning before going to get his picture taken for identification, he listened but his stomach didn't growl. He did not need to sleep technically, so could he perhaps last longer without getting hungry too?
Naruto decided not to dwell on it and rushed to eat as much ramen as he could before the time to meet his new jonin sensei arrived, Teuchi the chef seemed concerned about him, but congratulated him on graduating and becoming a genin.
The blonde wasn't sure whether or not he needed to eat, but given how his body reacted to depriving it of sleep regardless of need he decided he should probably remember to eat. He was grateful to Teuchi and his daughter Ayame for not asking about his weapon.
Naruto was glad there were more silent looks than questions when he returned, but after half an hour he was alone with Sasuke and Sakura, the other two genin of his cell. Their jonin still hadn't arrived, the blonde tapped his left index finger on his desk as he stared at the clock.
Naruto had always been impatient, but now there was something in his blood that urged him to constantly do something. The only way he could even force his body to rest was to do things in the dream, not that he was sure how much his immortal body actually needed rest.
Dying was a form of rest the blonde supposed, but immediately shook that thought from his head. Thinking of death as taking a nap was probably bad for his mental health and he did not need that to get worse, well, any worse than it already had.
An hour later with no jonin and the blonde lost patience, his eyes darted around the room to look for something to do. He considered playing a prank before he decided to practice his chakra control again, he wasn't sure he wanted his team to see him practicing a kinjutsu though so he attempted to make a pair of bunshin again.
Another hour later and Naruto's arms were sore and he was getting tired of making terrible bunshin after terrible bunshin, "You're going to exhaust yourself before sensei arrives." Sakura pointed out.
Naruto raised an eyebrow, "They're just bunshin." he said dryly.
"But your chakra control is awful, so you use way more than you need for everything right?" Sakura asked rhetorically as she took on a lecturing tone, "Chakra is a blend of physical and mental energies remember, practicing ninjutsu to get your chakra control up for it is all well and good but it'd be way more efficient to do the leaf balancing exercise."
Naruto had completely forgotten about the leaf balancing exercise despite having been given it as a punishment often enough, "That's a chakra control exercise?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
Sakura rolled her eyes, "Duh," she answered, "you've seriously been training all your ninjutsu just by doing them? No wonder your chakra control is so bad you must exhaust yourself constantly." she mused.
Naruto blinked, that one probably was kitsune weirdness and not old blood weirdness because he had never gotten particularly tired from practicing his henge or bunshin, unless he actually passed out.
Naruto recalled seeing plant life in the dream and made a mental note to practice the leaf balancing exercise more, and also to spend more blood on arcane since being smarter really was useful.
Soon enough after this revelation the door opened to reveal a silver haired man dressed in shinobi attire, with a flak vest and his hitai-ate covering his left eye, his hair spiked straight up, "Well, good to see you kids getting along." he mused as his lone eye traveled over them, Naruto noticed the man look at Nokogiribocho, "Meet me on the roof for introductions." the jonin ordered before he disappeared.
Naruto thought it was ironic that his new sensei had similar gloves to himself, "Now, I'd like you all to tell us a little bit about yourselves." the jonin began once they were all on the roof, not far from a rooftop orchid.
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, confused by the request.
The jonin considered the question, "...You know, the usual. Your favorite thing, what you hate most, dreams, ambitions, hobbies, things like that." he explained with a shrug.
Naruto frowned, "Help us out, why don't you go first?" he asked as he narrowed his eyes at the man.
Sakura nodded, "That's right, you're a complete stranger to us. A mystery." she pointed out, hugging her knees.
The jonin's eye glanced again to Naruto's holstered weapon, "Me? Huh, well my name is Kakashi Hatake." he began his introduction lazily, "I'm the kind of person who doesn't like talking about his likes or dislikes. My dreams for the future are none of your business, but anyway I have lots of hobbies." he finished in a bored tone as he rested his chin on his right palm and his right elbow in his left palm.
"He said a lot, but all we learned was his name." Sakura complained quietly, mood dour from the exchange.
Kakashi decided to ignore that comment, "Why don't you go first, blondie?" he asked with a pointed look at Naruto.
The boy jolted, he wasn't sure why he was nervous, he just had to introduce himself, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki," he began as he fiddled with his hitai-ate, leaving out that he wasn't certain if that name still counted after dying twice, "I like ramen, crafting weaponry," he continued, deciding if he was this deep in that cover he might as well lean hard into it, "and training. I hate the time it takes ramen to cook." he hesitated, the topic of dreams brought that place to mind.
"Your dreams for the future?" Kakashi prompted with a raised eyebrow.
"I will be Hokage." Naruto said firmly, "That's not a dream though, it's a goal." he added.
Kakashi hummed thoughtfully, "Why don't you go next sourpuss?" he asked the Uchiha.
Sasuke glared, "My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I don't like anything in particular, I hate a certain man, and my goals are to kill a certain someone and restore my clan." he listed off mechanically, clipped and short.
Kakashi looked pointedly at Sakura, "My name is Sakura Haruno." the green eyed girl introduced, "My favorite thing is, well it's not a thing but a person, a boy, the boy is..." she glanced at Sasuke, "Uh, moving on my dream is..." she looked at Sasuke again and blushed, "I hate Naruto." she added plainly and the blonde was taken aback by surprise at how calmly she said that, "My hobbies are..." she trailed off as she glanced at Sasuke again.
Kakashi found it a shame that young girls were more interested in love than ninjutsu, "Well I suppose we understand each other at least a little bit better now." he mused and ignored the glares he got from the three genin, "Formal training begins tomorrow." he finished.
Naruto perked up, "What kind of training?" he asked curiously.
"Survival exercises." Kakashi answered plainly.
Naruto frowned in confusion along with his other two teammates, "Why would that be a mission?" Sakura asked, speaking up to voice her own confusion, "Our training days were filled with survival missions." she pointed out. Sasuke didn't admit it but he was just as confused as his new team.
Kakashi shook his head, "This isn't your typical practice, you'll be surviving against me." he explained.
"What kind of practice will it be then?" Naruto asked, wanting it spelled out for him already. Kakashi just stifled a laugh in response, something that made Sasuke tense up with nerves.
"What's so funny, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, growing a bit nervous herself.
"Oh, nothing." Kakashi lied, "It's just that if I told you, you'd chicken out." he explained.
Naruto took offense to that, "Why would we chicken out!?" he asked with a frown, he was pretty confident nothing should scare him anymore.
Kakashi rested his face on his palm as he leaned forward slightly to give the three genin a cold stare, "Of the twenty seven members of your graduating class, only nine will actually be accepted as genin." he explained, "The other eighteen will return to the academy for remedial training, so this test has a sixty six percent failure rate." he finished.
Sakura was visibly nervous and Sasuke tensed up, to the surprise of the jonin though Naruto didn't seem concerned in the slightest, "So we have a night to prepare?" he asked, he had a training method that he knew worked wonders and he wasn't normal.
Kakashi was impressed by the guts of the blonde if nothing else, "Well you're confident, I'll give you that." he acknowledged, subtly implying he could tell how shaken the other two genin were, "In any event we'll be conducting this test tomorrow morning on a practice field so I can evaluate each of your skills and weaknesses. Bring all of your ninja tools and weapons, and don't eat breakfast unless you like throwing up." he explained before pulling out three handouts, "The details are in these, don't be late." he ordered as he handed the genin the details.
Naruto practiced throwing shuriken with his left hand at a tree in the dream, making sure to collect them when done. He was pretty sure he lost a few though, his accuracy was terrible. Maybe when his arcane improved he would be able to find them, but for now he needed more fine motor skills if he wanted to pass the survival test Kakashi had in mind.
Thankfully the blonde remembered to have dinner before going into the dream this time, he checked the survival guides in the shack, figuring any knowledge in them might help. However there was nothing about shelter or food gathering, it was all about harvesting blood, fortifying a safe location to return to the dream, and how to detect the presence of different beasts.
Naruto had already figured out that webs meant spiders were near, but he made a mental note to avoid any moving light sources since it was apparently usually very bad. He blinked as he read something about gaunt women with iron bells calling nightmare beasts into reality, the similarity to how the silver bell allowed him to enter the dream was not lost on him.
The blonde wanted to improve himself however and returned to the operating theater through the tombstone, he needed more blood if he wanted to be able to put up a real fight.
By morning Naruto barely had time to shower and get the blood off when he returned to the waking world on the surface, he needed to get himself a watch of some kind and hope it worked in the dream too. Of course he had no time to wash his jacket properly, so he just put on clean orange pants and a simple black undershirt.
Naruto frowned at his reflection, he didn't think his clothes looked bad but if he was going to be running around outdoors he'd like something to cover his arms. Now that he thought about it the jacket was technically protective clothing in a way.
The boy quickly pulled on his arm warmers, grabbed his weapons, and rushed to meet his team. He didn't even get time to test out his newly fine motor skills, but he supposed it couldn't have been much. He'd only killed a dozen or so of the desiccated humanoids.
"You're late." Sakura informed Naruto when he arrived, her arms crossed, "You're lucky our sensei is too. Honestly I thought Iruka-sensei said shinobi are prompt." she grumbled with a shake of her head.
"He's probably just waiting for Naruto to show up so he can scold him for being late." Sasuke suggested dryly.
Hours later the Uchiha was proven wrong, "You're late!" Sakura snapped at the jonin.
"A black cat crossed my path." Kakashi excused, "Then I helped an old lady cross the road and had to take the long way so I wouldn't walk under a ladder." he continued dryly.
"I'm stealing every excuse you use whenever I sleep in." Naruto informed his new sensei dryly.
Kakashi looked surprised by that bold declaration before he seemed to smile under his mask, "Well now, bold of you to assume you'll be sticking around long enough to pick up all my excuses." he mused, not denying they were excuses at all, "You don't even know the test, is that nokogiri the reason for your confidence?" he asked.
Naruto's right hand automatically went to the handle, "A little bit." he confessed, "It's a good weapon." he insisted.
"I heard you made it." Kakashi said, his tone gave away he did not believe it. The blonde tried to recall if he'd mentioned that yesterday but he was pretty sure it had not been said in front of the jonin, at least not while Naruto was aware the man is looking.
"If he made it I'm amazed it works." Sasuke said sarcastically, "Now what's the test." he demanded to know, more interested in that.
Kakashi pulled out and alarm clock and two small silver bells, Naruto's heart skipped a beat at the sight and sound of them but they were different to his bell. They were rounded, designed to be worn unlike his small handled bell which was open.
"You have until noon to get a bell from me, for extra motivation whoever fails to get a bell misses out on sensei's lovingly crafted bento, and they miss out on having a sensei." Kakashi explained, "Whoever doesn't get a bell gets tied to a training stump while the other two enjoy their lunch, then will be sent back to the academy for remedial training."
Sakura frowned as her two teammates eyed the bells, "But Kakashi-sensei, there are only two bells." she pointed out.
"Very astute," Kakashi retorted dryly, "one of you will fail this test and be sent back to the academy. Hence the fail rate." he explained.
Sakura paled, too panicked by the implication to double check the math on what he said yesterday. The fact her stomach was growling did not help her think.
Sasuke just looked determined to begin, while Naruto seemed focused so Kakashi continued, "You'll need to come at me with the intent to kill if you want to succeed, don't hold back." he said and noticed they looked hesitant, "I'm a jonin, even working together you kids would struggle to actually hurt me." he added with a mocking scoff, hiding a hint in his words.
Naruto just looked angered by the implication he didn't stand a chance and unholstered his weapon, in the blink of an eye Kakashi had his arm in a hold.
"Easy now, I didn't say start yet." Kakashi drawled lazily, "But that's some good killing instinct, I think I might approve of you." he said before he let go of the blonde, "Begin." he said.
Sasuke and Sakura were gone in an instant, impressive hiding spots and they even thought to shift positions after breaking line of sight. Naruto didn't even bother, "You know this is a test right? Show your abilities as a ninja?" Kakashi questioned, he'd heard stealth was actually one of Naruto's strong suits.
The blonde had a relaxed stance, "You know where the other two are though anyway, right?" he asked calmly, Kakashi was surprised and nodded, "So, this test isn't stealth based, in other words," the boy continued with a grin, "stealth is optional for this mission."
Then the boy tossed a single shuriken left handed, Kakashi was not aware the blonde genin was ambidextrous but was still able to easily dodge. Naruto charged and lifted his weapon up over his left shoulder, he flicked it open as he swung the cleaver edge down and to the right.
A log hit the ground in two, "Very good killing instinct, you didn't even hesitate." Kakashi managed to sound both impressed and reproachful one after the other, "Kawarimi no Jutsu, an academy basic you should know, once mastered you can get out of danger without your opponent suspecting a thing." the jonin lectured, he was supposed to be their sensei after all.
Naruto turned to the man as he spoke, he snapped his blade shut, "Yeah, well I'm the first shinobi who is going to use nokogirijutsu." he said, making up a new name for his variation of bukijutsu. If bojutsu and kenjutsu got their own names why not his weapon?
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "I doubt you're the first to use a nokogiri as a weapon, although I confess I imagine those were most likely all cases of improvising a weapon rather than the full adaptation of the kunai or kama you seem to be going for." he mused, "Although, that thing can hardly be called a normal nokogiri." he added dryly.
"Nokogiribocho is currently one of a kind." Naruto said confidently before he moved towards the jonin, something about his stride raised Kakashi's hackles. The man was surprised to have such an instinctive subconscious fear response to the young blonde, he worried it may be the kitsune's influence.
Kakashi palmed a kunai with his right hand, "I don't carry much but the basics these days, but I suppose this lesson can be on bukijutsu for now." he decided as his left hand reached into his tool pouch and pulled out a small orange book.
Naruto had thought the man was pulling out some other weapon or tool so he paused in surprise, "You read Icha Icha?" he asked, he should not have, the title was not on the cover.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "You read Icha Icha?" he repeated back incredulously.
Naruto shuffled his right foot nervously, "Well, n-no, I mean, it was just sort of sitting there written in hiragana-"
"You had access to a copy of Icha Icha written in hiragana?" Kakashi asked incredulously before there was an awkward silence, "Did you like it?" he asked to break it.
"I didn't read it!" Naruto denied, "I just checked what the title was because it was there." he insisted, he had not indeed actually had time to fully read it but he was sure he did not want to.
Kakashi chuckled, "Well, you're still a bit young to appreciate it." he said as he opened the book and started to read.
Naruto stared at the book, "Why are you reading now?" he asked.
"Because I want to see what happens next."
Naruto's eye twitched, "I'll show you what happens next." he growled before he palmed a kunai with his left hand and moved at Kakashi, again his stride even in the peripherals of his vision gave the jonin conniptions.
The man realized what it was, while the stride was not overly fast or long it was measured and predatory. There was an implied swiftness there that the boy didn't display until he deemed himself close enough and suddenly crossed a yard with a low leap as he unfolded his weapon at the jonin.
Naruto's sandals slid across the ground from how low and quick the leap was, and the extending blade was fast. Kakashi dodged instead of attempting to parry with a kunai, he stepped back to avoid the blade then side stepped around the follow up swing.
On the third swing the jonin knocked the weapon off course with a hit from his kunai and made to trip the genin with a sweep, to his surprise Naruto rolled to his feet as his weapon snapped shut and his left hand struck out to throw the kunai at the man.
Kakashi bat the thrown blade aside before he stepped back to avoid Naruto's follow up swing, but the shifting form of the strange weapon was hard to predict and the extending blade almost caught his bells. They jingled at his waist from coming so close to being hit by the tricky weapon.
Naruto didn't let up the pressure despite the lack of results, his breathing was even despite his exertion, his expression an eerie calm, and Kakashi realized the boy wasn't truly looking at him, not directly at least.
The jonin suppressed a sigh, his next dodge brought him behind the blonde so fast the boy lost track of him. Kunai and book held between hands clasped in the tiger sign, "Get out of there Naruto! He's going to destroy you!" Sakura cried out.
Kakashi was impressed both that the girl recognized the seal from her hiding spot and that she gave away said hiding spot to give Naruto a warning, "Too late," he sang with a smirk under his mask, "Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ogi: Sennen Goroshi!" the jonin announced as he thrust forward with the sign and launched the genin through the air with a rather rough poke to the butt that had the young Uzumaki giving a shriek that couldn't have been further from masculine.
Sakura felt stupid for giving away her position to warn Naruto of such a stupid attack and Sasuke's eye twitched as he became convinced he was surrounded by idiots, Kakashi giggled to himself as he returned to reading his book after Naruto splashed down in a nearby river.
The blonde genin was less than amused by what Kakashi had done, he decided he probably shouldn't test how long he could hold his breath though. With the way his body worked lately he'd probably accidentally suffocate to avoid drowning.
Naruto dragged himself up out of the river and glared at Kakashi as he stepped towards the man, the jonin didn't look up or give away how strange it was for Naruto to have the stride of a seasoned Anbu. Instead he waited for the blonde to attack and let the extending weapon strike a log, the saw teeth dug in and the boy was stuck with it for a moment.
Naruto frowned at the slight design flaw, but snapped the weapon shut with a flick of his arm that nearly tore the weapon from his grip before he pulled the log off. Namely by stepping on the log and yanking his weapon up out of it.
Sakura was already moving as silently as swiftly as possible to change her position and come up with a plan, unaware of this Naruto looked around for Kakashi but the jonin didn't reveal himself this time. Sasuke kept his position as he looked for the man as well, wondering if the man would be testing them one at a time.
Naruto noticed a glint on the ground and saw one of the bells, he guessed he must have gotten it loose earlier. The blonde hadn't been aware he'd pulled it off but he grinned as he scanned the ground, then with two quick movement his weapon folded open before it snapped shut, tearing into the ground.
Sasuke caught the movement but didn't understand it until Kakashi had the blonde pinned from behind, "Well now, aren't you observant. With that weapon you're probably the most physically threatening, but you can't beat a jonin like that." he lectured as he picked up the bell, dropping another hint.
Naruto frowned, "You're not just skilled," he muttered, "you're strong and experienced. Even though you're holding back you aren't holding back enough for us to actually pass." he continued, the jonin was silent, "We're not meant to come at you alone." he realized.
Kakashi was floored, according to test scores Naruto was a dunce, according to behavior and psychiatric reports the boy was emotionally stunted so the level of insight the boy displayed out of nowhere surprised him. He didn't think his hints were that much of a give away, that one had actually been for Sasuke.
Shuriken flew at the jonin and struck a log, Naruto stood up as Sasuke hopped down, "Alright, from the way his shoulders stiffened you're actually right." the Uchiha grudgingly confessed, "I don't really get it, seems like a cruel no win situation, but if you distract him I can get us those bells."
Naruto frowned, "What about Sakura-chan?" he asked.
Sasuke sighed, "I honestly doubt she could help, a week ago I doubt you would have been able to help." he said bluntly, showing exactly what he thought of his teammates abilities.
Naruto supposed his sudden growth was a little suspicious, he should be careful of that and try to make it seem more gradual than it was.
They heard a scream, "Sakura." Sasuke grumbled under his breath, "What are you doing!?" he snapped when the blonde started running.
"He won't kill her, but he made her scream to lure us in, this is our chance!" Naruto said quickly as he ran in the direction he heard the scream.
Sasuke was baffled that Naruto's response to figuring out it was a trap was to spring it but he followed the blonde, if he could at least use the other genin as a distraction then he could pass. He wanted to test himself against the jonin personally, but he had seen how surprised the man was when the blonde voiced the teamwork idea.
So the Uchiha decided to go with it, he needed to pass. They ran into Kakashi before Sakura, "Genjutsu, one of three primary ninpo. Sakura-chan seemed to be pretty weak to it." he said lazily as he turned the page of his little orange book.
Sasuke lowered his stance and Naruto walked towards the jonin, the Uchiha wasn't actually sure what to make of the stride his blonde teammate had in a fight. It was almost like a fluid stance, it somehow gave off a threatening aura.
The young Uchiha tried not to be reminded of him, he had a test to pass so thinking about him would only distract the boy. He suppressed it with a deep breath and palmed a pair of shuriken in each hand as his teammate attacked.
Sasuke was proud of his abilities with shurikenjutsu, but like he feared even working together he couldn't hit the bells. He even tried bouncing the thrown blades off each other in mid air to change trajectory to no avail, although to be fair he wasn't very good at that yet.
"Get back!" Sasuke ordered as he began to weave hand signs, Naruto glanced back as he finished his latest swing, frowning at the fact he missed again, but snapped his weapon shut and dashed backwards with a low leap.
Kakashi recognized those hand signs, "There's no way he has enough chakra." the man muttered, surprised further when the boy revealed he did have enough chakra and he breathed out a massive ball of fire at the man.
"You have to teach me how to do that." Naruto demanded.
"No way." Sasuke refused immediately, he frowned when he noticed Kakashi missing, he glanced around. The jonin wasn't on either side, behind, or above either.
"Below." Kakashi confirmed the Uchiha's train of thought as he dragged both boys under the earth, leaving only their heads visible. Somehow he accomplished this simultaneously, and Sasuke soon saw he did this using a physical bunshin, "Ninjutsu, Doton no Jutsu like that use chakra to manipulate the earth, Katon no Jutsu like your Gokakyu use chakra to create fire, and Kage Bunshin creates a physical bunshin that-"
"Hey that's a kinjutsu!" Naruto interrupted, "No fair!" he argued, they were called forbidden and here his sensei was just using it like it was fine.
Kakashi took a moment to realize why Naruto thought that kage bunshin was kinjutsu, "No, Taiju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is a kinjutsu because the chakra use can kill most people, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is an A rank ninjutsu." he clarified.
"Wait so I don't need to hide that I can use kage bunshin?" Naruto asked wide eyed at the prospect.
Kakashi was surprised again, he had heard the boy had stolen the Fuin no Sho but not that he had learned any ninjutsu from it, "Right, same hand seal." he muttered, "Don't make too many and be careful with it." he warned.
Naruto tried to shrug but his shoulders were underground so he just nodded in agreement instead, "Can you let us up now?" he asked.
"No." Kakashi said before both of him disappeared, both were bunshin.
"I blame you for this." Sasuke said dryly.
It was too long before Sakura found them, then she fainted on seeing the two boys. They freed themselves before she woke up again, and not long after the alarm Kakashi reminded them of rang across the training ground.
"Well, it seems like none of you got a bell." Kakashi mused from a nearby branch, revealing himself a bit too dramatically for Naruto's liking, "However, one of you did figure out the purpose of the test, and the other one followed through on his conclusion even if he didn't like it." the man continued and Sakura's stomach dropped, "Therefore, I will give you three one more chance, if you fail again you should drop out of the ninja program entirely." he said sternly, "Sakura, I'm tying you to this post." he finished as he pulled out rope.
"No fair!" Sakura denied immediately.
"You went down to a basic genjutsu and failed to recover in time to help your teammates." Kakashi pointed out bluntly, the rather harsh appraisal of her lack of contribution halted her struggles and she was tied to the post, "You two eat your lunch, if you share with Sakura you'll be taking her place and dropped from the program instead." he said before he left them alone.
Naruto waited until he was gone and immediately offered a sushi roll to Sakura, "What are you doing!?" Sakura hissed.
"I'm not hungry." Naruto said with a shrug, "I think he's gone anyway, we'll have a better chance if we're all fed too y'know." he insisted.
Sakura glanced at Sasuke who looked around before he nodded, "I think you're clear, you should eat." he agreed before he began to eat himself.
The pink haired girl wanted the Uchiha to feed her, but her stomach growled and she grudgingly accepted the food.
Thunder boomed as Kakashi returned in a cloud of smoke, "You!" the man exclaimed angrily, "Pass." he finished in a sing song tone with a smile that gave the trio of genin mood whiplash.